Talk:Thick-billed longspur

Name Change
Two comments regarding the common name of this species.

1. I don't think it makes any sense not to include "Mccown's Longspur" in the lead here. This is still a name that people know the species by, and will come here looking for. Compare Long-tailed Duck and Canada Jay which still list alternate names in the lead. This seems like a no-brainer to me.

2. More debatable, but I don't think this article should refer to "Mccown's Longspur" as a "former name". First of all, this isn't really true at the moment, many sources still use this name. The current article indicates that it is reasonable to expect that other sources will change (which it is), but this is speculative and unsourced. More importantly though, I think this is kind of a misunderstanding of what common names are. They aren't determined by organizations, they are determined by what people actually use. In the case of birds, people generally follow the organisations quite religously, but this is one example where it seems possible that some substantial fraction of people will continue stubbornly using Mccown's. And while this is IMO insensitive/immoral/[insert adjective], it isn't at all incorrect. Thoughts? Somatochlora (talk) 00:33, 20 August 2020 (UTC)


 * If sources still use the name then call it an alternative name. Good points. Cas Liber (talk · contribs) 01:18, 20 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Virtually all sources in print still use McCown's Longspur. Per wiki:CommonName, this article should be called McCown's Longspur with thick-billed longspur provided as an alternative name.XavierGreen (talk) 17:32, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Print sources tell us that the most common name was Mccown's prior to last year, which is not in dispute. There is good reason to think that Thick-billed is the more common name NOW, which earlier sources do not tell us anything about. Similarly, IOC and eBird, which have not changed, do not make updates on an ongoing basis and have not yet had the opportunity. The only relevant sources for this specific question are ones that have been published or updated in the past ~9 months.Somatochlora (talk) 20:17, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Regardless, that's not an excuse to break the infobox. THAT is nothing more than vandalism.&#32;- Sumanuil (talk) 22:06, 9 June 2021 (UTC)
 * The IOC now uses the new name. 188.148.229.11 (talk) 08:20, 26 June 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 12 October 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: page moved by Somatochlora. – wbm1058 (talk) 17:48, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

McCown's longspur → Thick-billed longspur – Both IOC and Clements/eBird now use this name. Limited data but from google scholar in the past the new name is nearly universal. Somatochlora (talk) 14:32, 12 October 2021 (UTC) The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.